(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an imaging cartridge for a computer system, and more particularly to which facilitates immediate document feeding process and which needs no more removable solid document cassette and no additional document positioning process.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a normal imaging system in the art is an individual table-top apparatus for document and photo duplication, with a direct duplicated paper or a computer code as its output. In the later output form, the computer code from the imaging system can then be processed through a computer. However, as the technology updating and the prospective office need, the application by connecting a computer and a table-top imaging system does no longer meet the requirement of convenience in a compact working space.
Corresponding to aforesaid current need, a built-in imaging device is integrated into a computer system. The built-in imaging device can be a cartridge form and has its recording controlled and processed by the mother computer. Some work in this field have already been disclosed in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 282196, 288619, and 315016. Although existing some limitations on the original document size, yet the computer system with a built-in imaging device still has advantages in numerous manifolds; such as convenient utilization with computer software, space saving in a crowded office, lower cost than purchasing a computer system and an imaging system, and so on.
In aforesaid work, disclosed in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 282196, 288619, and 315016, the imaging device is a cartridge or cassette form to carry any necessary imaging component insides, and to be installed into the housing of the mother computer. Such work is noble, but following disadvantages still remained.
1. limitation on the original document size: During the duplicating operation in all three work, the original document should be horizontally placed inside a removable cassette on top of the imaging device; which the original document handling is similar to that in a table-top imaging system, but the document size is limited to the size smaller than the size of the removable cassette.
2. poor dust-protection ability: While positioning an original document into a built-in imaging device, a top cover (seen in work disclosed in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 282196 and 288619) of the removable cassette needs to be opened, or the removable cassette needs to be taken away from the built-in imaging device for placing an original document (seen in work disclosed in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 315016). Either operation involves temporary opening or departure of the removable cassette from the cartridge of the built-in imaging device, thus increases the possibility of dust particles entering the built-in imaging device, and consequently those dust particles pollute and damage the imaging components insides.
3. complicated operation procedure: Operation procedure of the built-in imaging device includes the retrieval of the removable cassette from the imaging device, placing the original document into the removable cassette, re-positioning the removable cassette into the imaging device, scanning inside the imaging system, and repeating previous steps for another imaging operation. The procedure involves laborious human and machine cooperation at placing document into removable cassette, which makes the operation of the built-in imaging device inconvenient to a certain extend.
4. higher equipment cost: Due to limited installation space available, the built-in imaging device utilizes a plurality of reflection mirrors to achieve the required optic path. Moreover, the built-in imaging device applies a reciprocating driving unit for performing the reciprocal scanning motion of the removable cassette. Thus, the equipment cost for a built-in imaging device can't be reduced to an acceptable range.
Therefore, an invention devoting to resolving aforesaid disadvantages of current built-in imaging device for a computer system is necessary, definitely.